New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-05-29
TIE QUEEN IN LONDON.
TIE OPENING OF THE PEOPLES PALACE
AT THE EAST END.

II was half past on Saturday afternoon when !
started to drive from St JameSs-st. to the People
Palace, in Mile End Road. far in the East OF Lon
don. AS wanted to see the whole or nearly the
whole route went straight to Oxford-st, 1enerai
traffic was to have been stopped at 2 but from the
ton of Rond-st to Tottenham Court Road, Oxford
At. was tangled mass OF carriages, vans, omni-
huses and cabs 40 that it took half an hour to do
tho half mile and my cabmau more than once ad-
vised me to get ont Of it and try some other way.
i3ut beyond Tottenham Court Road the thorough
fare was in possession of the police and encumoered
only by foot passengers who seemed 10 tmhk
hanson cab an intruder, and to believe that the
movements had been swept and garnished Win
gravel for their exclusive benefit AT every oornor
policeman signalIed 10 the driver to turn on in'o
a side street. but the sight OF BIT OF caroooaiu
printed in pink softened the severity oil his views
and we were allowed to 90 on. In Mile End Road
our troubles began again aud another haif hoor
had TO be spent over the last halfmie as over the
6rst Street. cars and every kind of miscellaneous
vehicle were struggling and grinding along this
l,road avenue. Long before we reached IL,
we had become part of file of carriages and
bansoms all bound for the Palace. In the confu-
sion this file became double and treble. and one
passed and repassed and was again passed oy ones
friends and competitors in che race-a very $40"
race-for the entrance. Altogether 1t was an hour
and tbreeonarters before we arrived The distance.
I suppo,e is six miles, Police arrangements at
either end were anything but good, and have no
idea how Mile End Road was cleared for the Queen
as cleared it must have beens
But all this delay mattered nothing; 1t only gave
one better view Of the long spectacle OF decorated
streets and the mutitudes who were out TO see the
Queen. There are people who say-some OF the pa
pers say-that the adornments were poor. What
Al -. n aftern0Ou.
for nv part, cannot remember to have seen Lon
don so CAV. No single effort, perhaps. was very
brilliant one. No building was ornamented at great
cost or with originality of design or treatment OF
owed much to the suggestions OF art. 1t was tne
profusion of decoration. the wealth OF coior' the
variety the apparently endless succession OF haunt
ing flags and strips of bunting, aud embrol-
dered and bemottoed banners, and bon
Duets of unlon-jacks that made the general
effect so marvellous Here and there located
far above the rest the Royal Standard OF England
with its fields of gold and of crimson. Its lions and
leopards and bazonry of the throne. The detail
was not much to boast of; the birdseye view Tom
almost any point was fine and from certain points
was magnificent. Holborn and Holborn Vladuct
were superb The scope of the broad street. the
stretch of open space on either side the Viaduct.
lent themselves to picturesque treatment. Like all
the route Holbcrn is a street of shops ana ware
houses aud banks and public buildings 1t would
have been too much to expect that some OF the
tradespeope, who the majority. should not nave
seized the occasion to advertise their loyalty and
their wares together They did. Some OF those
displays were offensive, but probably did more harm
to the dispayers than to anybody else.
The people who had come out to see the Queen
omen their palace were themselves wonderful
sight. Their good temper was as good as that of
a French crowd on fete day; and more cannot be
said. The style IN which they opened their ranks
for carriages to pass proof enough OF their
amiabllity. The East End certainly beat the West
for numbers, and, 1 hear, for enthusiasm
when the Queen drove past. So did it in
the quantity if not quality of Its en-
bellishments. Festoons of manv-hued papers
often did duty for cloth Of gold and silk
and satin and velvet which moro prosperous peo'
pie put forth. But they had done all they could,
had given and striven out Of the abundance OF
their hearts. rather than of mere riches, and they
had their reward. There was really nothing to beat
or equal WhitechapeL You might not think Ho-
born very sumptuOus in its luxury after all You
were sure to feel that in the tnse and bits of red
rag which hung on the front of mean little Shops
In the East there was something genuine, nay, pa
thetic. There, if anywhere. is the home OF Democ-
racy, even of Republication and Socialism, and,
perhaps, of Anarchy itself. though there is ex-
tremely little Of any one in any political sense or
disable for any political purpose. But these hard
working, SIMPLE folk in the midst of their grim
poverty or desperate struggle for existence havea
sentiment of loyalty which no Republican need
contemp man must be loyal to something. fla
Queen be his ideal of what is nobes or greatest in
this world In heavens name let him be loyal to
her.
There is vast deal to be said about the Peoples
Palace and the Beaumont Trust and Mr.. Walter
Bessnt, whose dream has taken this solid
and splendid shape, but 1 must leave IT
and limit myself to brief notes of what saw and
heard. The Queens Hall is much praised. 1t is
gift, and for one will not look it in the mouth
prefer to assume that the People not to be asked
to derive their notions Of art from from all this
garishness Of gliding and crude color and architect
ural features where the sham classic contends
with the commonplace. Enough that it is roomy
and that the music of numerous choir and the
tones of a woman's voice were equally audible aud
clear IN all parts.
Doors to be shut at f. said ones card, and no per-
son to be admitted after. This was alarming IN its
peremptoriness, yet at quarter past they were
still wide open and people streamed in till the
hour fixed for the Queens coming. First OF the
royalties to arrive was the Duke of Cambridge,
gorgeous in his Field MarshaPs panoply; with him
the Duchess of Teck and her pretty daughter,
Princess Victoria The platform at that moment
was III sole possession of Lady Salisbury Nowise
disconnected the Prime Minister'S wife stood aside
for the Duke to mount, then entered into CHEEKY
talk with the gray warrior without the preliminary
courtesy which the George Ranger" clearly ex-
pected. A few-not very many-celebrities were
visible. Professor Huxleys square, strong. swarthy
face, with eyes of gray fire beneath crown of
gray hair looked down from the east gallery; the
saucy visage Of pretty young woman, who resem-
bled him slightly, by his side. Sir Arthur and Lady
Hayter were In the centre; Lady Rosebery sat in
trout In dark lilac; Lord Rosebery in a Windsor
uniform of blue and gold was moving up and down
the aisle. Lord Randolph Churchill had been
shown to seat SIX rows to the rear, and sank into
il with content. Not 50 the Duchess of Manches-
ter. She demonstrated with the usher and pres